Sunday, January 28, 2018

A Quilt and Surfer's Point

A Quilt: I fin-al-ly finished stitching the hem on the last side of the big Cheddar and Cinnamon quilt on Thursday morning.  

The cheddar binding is a bit wobbly and lost against the new fence boards, but is flat and even. I'm happy with how the wool batting looks with the quilting. 

Stats:  72" square, made from 9 patches received in Julie K's swap in 2009, the square-in-square star points and borders are Jo Morton prints.  Quilt top was made in 2011, the backing in 2012, and after hanging in the closet for five years, I finally sent it out to be quilted in June 2017.  Binding complete January 2018.

I machine washed and air dried it and it is cozy and warm on the bed.  It looks good hanging on the back of my couch too. Hooray!

Surfer's Point:  Friday afternoon I felt like going to the beach and headed down to my favorite spot to visit.   This is a famous point break, ask any surfer!  It was windy but not too cold, with no crowds that late in the day. 


This is looking south towards the Pier, with the Santa Monica Mountains in the distance. You can see there is a lot of driftwood litter at the tide line.  Some of these rocks are purposely there to hold the beach from washing away, but recent storms brought a lot in from the Montecito floods to the north.


I was happy to get this shot of two different kinds of surfers on the same wave, one on a regular board, and one with a kite.  That is a huge container ship on the horizon.
Walking down the path, I spotted some rock statues someone had assembled and got another lucky shot with the surfers and the Channel Islands in the background.  


Down on the sand, you could see where the heavy storm surge pulled away the base of the pathway.  These huge tree logs/branches were all over the beach.  The red colored one I believe is from a Manzanita tree that must have been quite old, as these start as shrubs.  The runner on the pathway above gives more of a hint of the log size than my long tall shadow.

Another broken, burnt and battered branch in the sunset.  

I picked up a few small pieces of driftwood, but was most taken by a larger, about 3 foot piece I found at the high tide line.

I'm not sure what kind of tree this came from, but it was burnt, from the inside.


I have never seen anything like this before. It was heavy, waterlogged from being in the ocean. The end looks to me like a paw, or deer's hoof.   I'll have to find a way to display it in the house when it finishes drying out on my porch.  Rescue and recovery is still happening in Montecito, more offramps are open and some residents have been allowed to return home as services are slowly being restored to the mudslide area.  The cleanup will take many months.  I saw trucks bringing more mud and boulders to the Fairgrounds in Ventura, where the debris will be sorted out and remaining dirt and rocks used to rebuild our washed out banks.  

Our own scorched hills have sprouted a tiny bit of grass here and there with the little amount of rain we received in early January.  But dry, hot winds are back, with the red flag warning in effect again.  There is still a lot of dry fuel to burn due to our prolonged drought, and always the threat of fire.  Our guild is having sew-ins through all of next month and we have gathered a lot of donations our Thomas Fire relief quilts.  One board member brought home an amazing donation of 77 bolts of last year's fabrics from a shop in Santa Monica.  We shopped her pickup truck for backings at our sew-in Saturday!We have secured an almost free storage site that will help keep us organized.  Lots of wonderful quilt tops and entire quilts have been donated and we will get them out as fast as we can.  I made two backings today and sewed some binding strips in preparation for quilt sandwiches, and have another kit of blocks to assemble into a top.  Lots of sewing to keep me busy!

7 comments:

Sherrill said...

An oldie but goody marked off the list. YAY! Love all your outdoor photos. So pretty and a wonderful piece of driftwood--will be pretty most anywhere you put it.

Janet O. said...

That is a great quilt! I think the traditional blocks are always my favs, and the colors in this are so warm and cozy. Makes me want to wrap up in it now!
What a treat to be that close to such natural beauty. You got some wonderful photos. Being landlocked, I am always in awe of the immensity of the ocean whenever I get a chance to visit.
I think those rock piles are called cairns.
Your guild is doing such good work!

Kate said...

Congrats on the Cheddar and Cinnamon quilt finish. It turned out beautifully. Thanks for sharing your walk along the beach. It's a beautiful place. Hopefully, Calf. will get more rain this spring and so it will not be so dry next year.

Karen said...

Your quilting looks so nice in your nine patch quilt.

Preeti said...

Your Cheddar and Cinnamon Quilt is beautiful, Annie. I see more cinnamon and only hints of cheddar. It looks like it would be perfect to cuddle with a good book and a cup of hot tea. You ladies of Ventura Quilt Guild have some gorgeous quilts. I checked your Flicker page.
I wish I could take a walk-on the beach. Although I am on the east coast, the beach is not exactly close by. Sending you hugs and best wishes.

Louise said...

Congrats on the finish of Cheddar and Cinnamon! It's lovely and classic :)

That burnt piece of driftwood reminds me of the open, almost honeycomb structure of some cactus stalks. I don't think that would be heavy, though, even water logged.

Rammy Jones said...

The snacks here had a smooth taste with a bit of cheese and lime juice. To start, we got pork rinds there; they were really flavorful with a spicy kick and smooth taste. Plus, it was a large fresh bag too, event space San Francisco is worth the price.

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